ABSTRACT

This study aimed to understand the types and characteristics of lonely elderly from the perspective of social isolation and compare their differences in quality of life (QOL). A cross-sectional survey of 2148 lonely elderly in Shanxi province, China was conducted. The latent profile analysis was used to classify the lonely elderly and describe their characteristics. A hierarchical multilinear regression method was applied to evaluate their differences in QOL. The lonely elderly can be divided into two categories: Class-Ι, in low social isolation with a significant correlation between social isolation and loneliness (p < 0.05), and Class-ΙΙ, in high social isolation with no significant correlation between social isolation and loneliness (p > 0.05).QOL of Class-Ι was significantly higher than that of Class-ΙΙ. Class-ΙΙ was in a state of self-imposed isolation with poor QOL and should be the focus-group during practical intervention.